Exit 9

“Let me see.”

She moved her hand. There was a one-inch scratch where a branch had whipped up and caught her.

He moved around and kissed her on the lips. “That’ll make it feel better.”

“You think so?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.

He kissed her again, longer this time. “Better?”

“Yeah. I’ll live.”

With a playful grin, he turned and leaned against the window, cupping his hands around his eyes. What he was looking at was obviously intended to be a lobby. But Hidde-Kel’s lobby was devoid of any sign of use. There were no chairs, no magazines, no plants, no company name on the wall. Nothing. It almost looked as if the room had never been used.

Hearing footsteps on the street, Corey looked over. Blanton. He was walking down the road, munching on one of the White Castle burgers he hadn’t finished earlier.

“Over here,” Corey called out.

Blanton jerked to a stop, then headed over once he realized who it was. “Why the hell did you leave me there like that?”

“You were asleep.”

“You could have woken me up. I was starting to think maybe this whole trip was some kind of practical joke.”

“It just might be,” Corey said. “This is Hidde-Kel. But it looks empty.”

“Empty?”

Blanton pushed his way through the bushes, his backpack getting caught for a second before he finally reached them. He peeked through the window.

“That’s weird.”

“How old was the information you found?” Corey asked.

“Six months or so.”

“They could have moved out,” Jeannie said.

“I guess so, but what I found made it seem like they were going to be around for a while.”

Corey frowned. “Did any of the info mention what the building was supposed to be for?”

“Corporate offices.”

Jeannie glanced up and down the street. “Doesn’t quite seem like the setting for a corporate office, does it?”

Blanton pulled his backpack off his shoulders. “Maybe they just don’t use the front.” From inside the bag, he pulled out his laptop and flipped it open. Crouching down, he set it on his knees and began typing. After a few seconds, he looked back up. “The only Wi-Fi signals I’m getting are too weak to be coming from here.”

This was totally not what Corey had expected. He’d set out to write a paper on a growing agriculture-related firm, and now he had what amounted to a mystery on his hands. There had to be some simple explanation, something that would probably make him feel like an idiot when he found out.

“I wonder if it’s possible to get inside,” he said.

Jeannie shrugged. “One way to find out.”

She moved past the windows to the concrete pathway and up to the steel front door. She gave it a yank.

“It’s locked.”

Corey headed past her to the side of the building where he’d seen a gate, but it was secured by a thick chain and padlock. The property next door also had a chain-link fence around its lot, but it was shorter, with no barbed wire on top. Even better, the gate meant to close it off was open.

With the other two trailing behind him, Corey walked into the lot and moved along the fence that separated the two properties. About three-quarters of the way back, he stopped, figuring they were far enough away from the street not to draw any attention if someone just happened to be driving by.

He waited for his two friends to catch up, then said, “You guys stay here. I’m hopping over.”

“You’re going alone?” Jeannie asked.

“Better if only one of us gets caught trespassing than all three.”

She stared at him. “Uh, excuse me. We’re all trespassing right now.”

He should have known better than to even suggest the solo trip. In the end, it was decided they’d all go.

One by one, they climbed over the fence and ran over to the Hidde-Kel building. There were no windows along the side, and only four doors. They tried each, and weren’t surprised to find they were all locked.

Along the back of the building was a large loading dock. Here there was a single, very wide opening at least a story and a half high that was currently closed off by a rolling metal door. Beside it was another normal-sized door. As with the others, both were locked.

The far side of the building was identical to the first they’d checked-four doors, none open. Corey hadn’t expected this to be easy, but he had been hoping.

“I guess that’s that,” Blanton said.

Corey ignored him and headed once more for the back of the building. He had seen one possibility. It was a bit more involved than what he would have liked, but he really wanted to see inside to make sure Hidde-Kel was gone.

The outer part of the loading dock had a six-foot wall on either side, but no roof. As the walls neared the actual building, they stairstepped upward in two-foot increments until they reached the roof.

“Give me a boost,” he said to Blanton.

Both Blanton and Jeannie looked at him.

Jeannie was the first to realize what he meant to do. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“I just want to see if there’s any way to look in.”

She grimaced, but said nothing else.

Blanton created a cradle with his hands, and gave Corey the boost. Once on top, Corey stayed in a crouch to maintain his balance as he worked his way along the brick, then up and up and up until he reached the roof.

“What do you see?” Jeannie called out.

Corey scanned the roof. “Several air ducts, some machinery…maybe air conditioners or heaters?” He continued to look, then smiled. “Hey, I think there’s an access door up here.”

“Corey, be careful!”

“Don’t worry.”

It wasn’t really an access door as much as it was an access hatch. When he pulled up on it, it moved a few inches, but then stopped. It felt more rusty than latched from the inside, so he tried again. It groaned as it opened an additional half-inch. His third try opened more, then on the fourth, there was a pop. The hatch flew open, and Corey rolled back onto his ass.

“Everything all right?” Jeannie called out, her voice distant.

“Fine!” he yelled back.

He knelt beside the opening. There was a ladder that went down four feet to a metal catwalk, but beyond that, all was dark.

He sat back. Up to this point, he’d technically been involved in only a little exterior trespassing. Okay, and some breaking in. What he hadn’t done was actually enter anything. The moment he put any part of his body through that hole, that would all change.

While his head was saying, “Get the hell out of here,” his gut was telling him, “Just check it out.”

He decided to listen to his gut.

He lowered himself through the hole and climbed down the ladder. Testing the catwalk first, he moved onto it. Now that he was inside, he could see all the way to the nearest wall. There appeared to be another ladder there going down to ground level so that’s where he headed. Less than a minute later, he was standing on the floor.

There was an eerie silence to the place, a sense of desertion reinforced by the stale air. If Corey had to guess, he’d have said no one had been there for at least several days. Devoid of people, yes, but not empty. Even with limited visibility, he could make out several large objects looming in the darkness.

Staying near the wall, he made his way toward the back. When he was about fifty feet from the end of the building, there were no more objects filling the space and the area beside him appeared to be empty. He reached